[Tallahassee, FL] The Florida A&M University (FAMU) board of trustees approved a plan on a 9-1 vote Monday to deal with the aftermath of the death of Robert Champion in a hazing incident.

The plan, by public relations firm DKC, would include creating a blue-ribbon panel to recommend ways to combat hazing and setting up a memorial and a scholarship in honor of Champion, a drum major with the school’s famed “Marching 100” band.

Champion died in a hazing incident in Orlando following the annual FAMU-Bethune Cookman football game on Nov. 19. The death, which medical examiners ruled a homicide, sparked a Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) investigation that has since expanded into the band’s finances.

Trustee Belinda Reed Shannon, who worked closely with DKC to craft the plan, said the blue-ribbon committee would be independent of FAMU and “forward-looking,” considering wider anti-hazing issues.

“It will not examine or investigate the circumstances of recent hazing incidents at FAMU,” Shannon said.

A FAMU task force aimed at looking into how the band’s social structure might have contributed to Champion’s death was frozen at FDLE’s request.

But board member Narayan Persaud, who voted against the plan, said he felt it was still too narrow.

“The plan is too simplistic and doesn’t address the culture of hazing on the campus,” Persaud said.

By: The News Service of Florida

Lead image: FAMU facebook page

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FAMU trustees will create committee for anti-hazing (St. Augustine Record) “Memorials, scholarships and committees will not bring Robert Champion back, nor will they prevent another student from dying as a result of the culture of hazing in the FAMU marching band,” the family’s attorney, Christopher Chestnut, said in an email …

FAMU Board approves plan to battle hazing (CNN) The strategy, devised by the public relations firm hired by FAMU in December, Dan Klores Communications, includes creating a memorial on campus for Champion, setting up a scholarship in the deceased drum major’s name and organizing an independent …

FAMU Trustees Approve Plans to Create Anti-Hazing Committee After Student Death (ThirdAge) The family of a Florida A&M University (FAMU) marching band member who police say died after being hazed says no memorial or independent committee studying hazing will prevent a similar death. The university’s board of trustees on Monday approved plans …

FAMU

[Tallahassee, FL] The president of Florida A&M University (FAMU) said after a meeting with Gov. Rick Scott on Friday that he would consider stepping aside while the investigation into the hazing rituals and finances of the school’s famous “Marching 100″ band continues.

President James Ammons’ statement came on commencement day for FAMU, adding a touch of dissonance to a day on which Scott came under fire for his recommendation and Orange County medical examiners officially ruled the hazing death of Robert Champion a homicide.

Ammons and Scott met for about 40 minutes the day after the governor called for Ammons to be suspended at a special meeting of the FAMU board of trustees scheduled for Monday morning.

“He thought that it was in the best interest of the university and myself, that there wouldn’t be any questions about how the investigation would be carried out by stepping aside, letting the investigations be complete, and then come back after,” Ammons said.

Asked if he agreed with the governor’s recommendation, Ammons said: “It’s something that I’m considering.”

But Scott faced an onslaught of criticism from Florida A&M University students – hundreds of whom gathered outside the Governor’s Mansion on Thursday evening – and graduates of the school.

State Sen. Arthenia Joyner (D-18/Tampa) – the Minority Leader Pro Tempore – issued a scalding statement calling for Scott to back down.

“It’s particularly galling that the governor justifies his action as a way to assure people the university is fully cooperating,” Joyner said. “This is the same Rick Scott who had no similar compunction to immediately step aside as CEO of HCA when the FBI launched its probe into what became the largest health care fraud case ever in this country’s history.”

Photo: FL Senate

Sen. Arthenia Joyner of Tampa

Ammons was notably more muted after his meeting with Scott, calling it “a great conversation” and saying he believed the governor was looking out for FAMU.

“We all have the best interests of Florida A&M University at heart, and we’re all going to do what is best for the university,” Ammons said.

For his part, Scott showed no signs of backing away from his calls for Ammons’ temporary ouster.

“I believe that it’s in the best interest of the institution that he step aside at this point to make sure everybody’s comfortable that we have an investigation, that there’s complete cooperation, that it’s transparent,” Scott told reporters earlier in the day.

Orange County medical examiners, meanwhile, officially ruled Champion’s death a homicide, saying he went into shock following “multiple blunt trauma blows to his body.” In a statement following the report, Ammons and trustees Chairman Solomon Badger said the news was expected but “extremely upsetting.”

Champion, a 26-year-old band leader, died after what police say appears to have been a hazing following the annual Florida Classic football game between FAMU and Bethune Cookman on Nov. 19.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced Wednesday that its investigation in Champion’s death was widening to include the band’s finances.

The incident has turned into one of the first major public-relations tests of Scott’s administration, both in his decision to announce Thursday that he thought Ammons should step aside and in his response to the sometimes-raucous reaction to it by student protestors.

Scott reportedly riled some of the protestors when he tried to relate to the students by mentioning that he lived in public housing when he was younger – an anecdote that also offended black lawmakers at a meeting with the governor earlier this year, with some of them taking it as a suggestion that Scott believed that all blacks grow up poor.

It could also test his clout with the board of trustees, who will meet by telephone Monday morning to weigh Ammons’ fate again, after voting last week to reprimand the president but not place him on administrative leave.

“Any time the governor speaks, it creates pressure,” said former state Sen. Al Lawson, a Florida A&M University alumnus and prominent backer of the school, who met with Ammons and Scott. “And so, I think that it’s going to be a long weekend for them.”

By: Brandon Larrabee/The News Service of Florida

Lead image: FAMU presdient James Ammons speaks to reporters after meeting with Gov. Scott. Photo: Michael Peltier/The News Service of Florida

Florida A&M University